November 5, 2004 - RFID Roundtable

RFID Research Project Description, 2004-2005

Robert J. Kauffman, Director, MIS Research Center

Frederick J. Riggins, Research Project Leader, RFID, MIS Research Center

General Description. We would like to invite your company to participate in a new research project to be conducted by the faculty and staff associated with the MIS Research Center at the Carlson School of Management of the University of Minnesota. In May 2004, we began to implement a new business model for our research center that will involve a combination of a Friday Speaker Series on Emerging Technologies, Outsourcing and RFID, as well as Research Projects on topical themes that are of interest to our corporate members. In the 2004-2005 academic year, we will be undertaking two separate projects: one on global outsourcing and another on RFID in retailing and supply chain management . Related to the research projects, we expect to have four keynote speakers who will give Friday morning presentations on the topics: two on outsourcing and two on RFID. We also plan to have two Research Roundtable meetings for each research projects. We expect the projects to kick off in the September, October and November time frame, and conclude in April and May 2005. To ensure that the projects will be of high value to MIS Research Center corporate members, we are planning to run the projects with a fast cycle-time, and complete them in about six months.

Project Topic Overview and Research Questions. The topic of radio frequency identification (RFID) was suggested to the MIS Research Center leadership in a Spring 2004 strategic planning meeting, and in discussions that ensued during the year. This area is currently of significant interest based on the spate of news in the popular and business press about the potential applications and business value of RFID in a variety of interesting applications. Our current assessment of RFID in 2004 is that it is roughly where XML was in 1997 and PDAs were in 2000. The upside potential for this emerging technology is very high, since there are many innovative and high payoff applications that are currently being discussed in industry and by the technological innovators of RFID tags and RFID readers. They include inventory management in the supply chain, retail inventory management on store shelves, marking airline bags to improve delivery tracking and reduce lost bags, and many other applications. Industry observers have commented on the coming “data flood,” as supply chain and logistics management, as well as in-store inventory and promotion management begin to use RFID tags. In this project, we will be exploring some of the following questions, as well as others that are guided by our interactions with you and your colleagues at MIS Research Center-participating firms. What is the business case for adopting RFID? How can its costs and benefits be understood, since the technology is still developing? To what extent will RFID be affected by standards issues? Will different vendor capabilities develop that will affect the viability of what becomes available? Keep in mind that these are preliminary questions only. We are hoping to interact with people at your firm, who will be able to further enrich our shared exploration. During Summer 2004, the research team is in the process of developing a framework to articulate the Business Case for RFID and identify the barriers to achieving ROI from this technology. We are currently scheduled to present a preliminary version of this framework at a conference in Denver October 24, 2004 where we will solicit feedback from other academics. When the roundtable convenes, probably in November, we will present this framework and seek to work with industry participants in the coming months to modify and improve the framework.

Personnel and Process. Professor Fred Riggins will be the Research Project Leader for RFID. His expertise spans supply chain management and interorganizational systems, and he has considerable experience with IT investment evaluation and the adoption of emerging technologies. Professor Rob Kauffman, MIS Research Center Director, has been instrumental in the conceptualization of the MISRC's new business model, and will be a contributing participant as well. The process we will use for developing this fast turnaround research project is as follows. We will kick off the project in a Friday MISRC Speaker Series meeting with a keynote speaker who will help us to set the agenda for examining the major issues associated with adoption and investment in new business practices associated with RFID. One week later (if possible), we will convene the first RFID Research Roundtable, involving the research faculty and their associates with representative of interested companies. This will be a brainstorming session that will permit the participants to state their interests and offer suggestions on the goals and contents of the project deliverables. Thereafter, the research project team will begin its work, which may involve case studies, a survey, data collection and other work. Then, in February or March, we will invite a second keynote speaker on RFID, and run a 2 nd RFID Research Roundtable right after that over a working lunch. We will conclude the project with project deliverables for the participants, and a plenary presentation in a Friday Speaker Series meeting during May 2005 to brief all MISRC member firms' attendees on the Research Project's results.

Outcomes and Deliverables. The Research Project will provide a range of opportunities for our MISRC member firms to benefit and exchange information about the managerial and technological issues associated with outsourcing. The participants in the project will decide the specific deliverables in consultation with the MISRC Director, following consultation with MISRC member firms participating in the research. The findings of the project will be reported with appropriate presentation materials and MISRC Working Papers available to MISRC member firms. We also expect to publish papers in academic journals using the data collected in the project.

We look forward to your participation and welcome your inquiries and suggestions for making this effort successful! If you have additional questions, please contact Donna Sarppo, Assistant Director of the MIS Research Center.